I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to credit card products and to systems and methods for providing and using such products. More particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods for modifying an existing credit card product to provide one or more extra lines of credit and associating one or more vendors with one or more extra lines of credit on a credit card product. The invention also relates to systems and methods for editing vendor profiles associated with one or more extra lines of credit for existing and newly issued credit card products.
II. Background and Material Information
Credit card products have become so universally well known and ubiquitous that they have fundamentally changed the manner in which financial transactions and dealings are viewed and conducted in society today. Credit card products are most commonly represented by plastic card-like members that are offered and provided to customers through credit card issuers (such as banks and other financial institutions). With a credit card, an authorized customer or cardholder is capable of purchasing services and/or merchandise without an immediate, direct exchange of cash. With each purchase, the cardholder incurs debt to their credit card account, which the cardholder may thereafter pay upon receipt of a monthly or otherwise periodic statement. In most cases, the cardholder will have the option to either fully pay the outstanding balance or, as a matter of necessity or choice, defer at least a portion or the balance for later payment with accompanying interest or finance charges for the period during which payment of the outstanding debt is deferred (also referred to as a revolving charge credit line).
The spending power of a credit card (i.e., the maximum amount of funds that is financed to the cardholder for making purchases) is typically limited to a particular amount that is predetermined by the issuer of the card. This amount is commonly referred to as the “credit limit” of the credit card. The credit limit provides the cardholder with a line of credit (also referred to as a credit line). The size of the issuer-imposed credit limit is generally based on a number of non-exclusive factors, the most important of which are often the cardholder's earning capacity and the cardholder's credit history. When purchases are made or debts incurred with the credit card, the available portion of the credit limit is reduced by the purchase or debt amounts. In addition, interest and/or finance charges are also subtracted from the available portion of the credit limit on a periodic basis. The total debits on a credit card are referred to as the “outstanding balance,” while the remaining or available balance of the credit limit is typically called the “available balance” and reflects the dynamically adjusted current spending power of the credit card. The cardholder may increase the available balance up to the credit limit, by paying the outstanding balance to the issuer.
Credit card issuers usually provide general purpose credit cards that may be used for a plurality of different goods and services and with a wide variety of merchants. For example, a Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Dinner's Club are examples of general purpose credit cards. Since general purpose credit cards are intended for “general use” by a cardholder, they are typically not associated with a single merchant/vendor or limited in use.
Some credit card issuers or merchants issue private label credit cards (e.g., a Sears Charge Card) for use exclusively with a merchant's goods and/or services. Such private label credit cards may be issued to customers of the merchant to provide an incentive to purchase the goods and/or services of the merchant. Private label credit cards may be issued with different types of terms and conditions. For example, a private label credit card may include a private label credit line with a predetermined credit limit and the possibility of deferring payment on an outstanding balance with a finance or interest charge (e.g., a revolving credit line). A private label credit card may also include a charge account that requires the cardholder to pay the balance in full at the end of each month or the card may include an installment line of credit where the cardholder is required to make a fixed, periodic payment to the merchant (or the merchant's representative) until the installment debt is paid.
Private label credit cards have several disadvantages. For example, the credit line of a private label credit card may only be used to make purchases in connection with the merchant's goods and/or services. As a result, a private label credit card limits a customer's overall use of the credit card. Moreover, if the private label credit card includes a charge account that requires full payment of the outstanding balance at the end of the month, the cardholder tends to limit use of the merchant's credit card to an amount that can be paid at the end of the month.
To overcome the above mentioned disadvantages, credit cards have been created that offer dual lines of credit. Dual line credit cards include a general purpose credit line and a private label credit line. Dual line cards provide cardholders with the ability to purchase goods from a specific merchant or make general purchases for a wide variety of goods or services. Methods and systems for providing dual line credit cards are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/659,585, filed Sep. 11, 2000, which is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Although dual line credit cards provide advantages over conventional credit cards, they require credit card issuers to generate and issue new accounts or cards to customers. This requires customers to prepare new credit applications that card issuers have to process before a new card may be issued. Customers must therefore wait until the new credit card is received before they can use the dual line credit card. Furthermore, although the use of dual lines of credit on a single card provides versatility for customers and merchants, the resources used by the card issuer to generate such credit cards increases with each accepted application. Also, dual line credit cards are still limited in the sense that each private label credit line is associated with a specific merchant or vendor; and, thus restricts a customer's purchasing power with the private label credit line.